photo credit: Malak Chahboub
In 2021, the district rolled out three new logos for all of the high schools besides Berlin as well as new logos for many of the elementary and middle schools. Therefore, the high school changed the athletic logo from “Pioneer Pete”, a classic American pioneer with a raccoon fur hat and an angry facial expression, to an unnamed-faceless astronaut mascot.
The logos were changed for two major reasons: to streamline the district branding and strengthen Olentangy’s imagery and to step away from dated and offensive mascots.
2021 was a year of stepping away from dated representation of Native Americans in media and groups. The year prior, The Washington Redskins stepped away from the historic name. In July 2021, the nearby Cleveland Indians changed their branding to the Cleveland Guardians. So, it came to little surprise when the district stepped away from the Braves’ Native American mascot as well as the school’s own classic pioneer mascot.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, “We talked about what makes each building, each school unique and what’s important to their identity and culture, to develop imagery that shows who they are,” Olentangy Schools Chief Communications Officer Krista Davis said.
Principal Monica Asher arrived at the school just after the re-branding. She wasn’t involved in the process but is heavily linked to the outcome and aftermath.
“One thing I don’t think a lot of students realize is that they engaged a lot of people in the student body and in the building. With the new full body mascot, we held lots of focus groups with students to gather their thoughts and feedback,” Asher said.
School mascots are a smaller piece to the larger puzzle of school image, branding, and marketing.
“Mascots and branding allow us to have a greater platform to promote our school. We are a great school and it’s important we let everyone else see how wonderful we are. We recently found out that we made the honor roll and that we recorded all five-star ratings from the Ohio Department of Education. Plus, we’ve had so much success in the arts,” Asher said.
Senior James Wimsatt is one of four pioneer pit leaders this year. He’s a big role player for school spirit at the school.
“Honestly, I don’t think having a mascot makes a difference in spirit and pride because those two aspects of our school come from the culture and the individuals that make up our school,” Wimsatt said.
The mascot isn’t only something that students inside the school can look to for the school’s identity.
“The pioneer mascot represents who we are as a school and our traditions year in and year out. The mascot creates a standard for those to come into the school, but also for those outside the community to easily recognize who we are,” Wimsatt said.
The new astronaut logo is just a larger piece of the school’s mascot. Many students are wondering why the school doesn’t have a physical mascot cheering on the sidelines of sporting events.
In 2021, the first graduating class after the mascot change, the senior class donated $2,000 to the school as a senior gift. The $2,000 was meant to create a physical mascot suit.
Three years later, there’s still no mascot suit, the money is still dormant in the school, and the new senior class is still inquiring about the mascot suit situation.
“The $2,000 is still available and the athletic department is still here to help us. The biggest issues we’ve been facing have been the uniqueness of the mascot as well as a large staff change since 2021. However, we’re getting closer to a physical mascot, the mascot’s body was just designed and can be found outside the library. The biggest thing students can do to expedite the process is to get involved, anything helps, even just ideas,” building secretary Bridgette Sindeldecker said.
Even without a school mascot, the school is soaring academically and athletically and every student should be proud to be a pioneer.
